Larry M. Hyman

Ph.D., Linguistics, University of California, Los Angeles, 1972.
Except for a two-year leave with a Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Miller Institute for Basic
Research in Science (U.C. Berkeley, 1973-1975), he taught at the University of Southern California
from 1971 to 1988. He came to Berkeley's Department of Linguistics in 1988, which he chaired from
1991 to 2002. He has worked extensively on phonological theory and other aspects of language
structure - particularly as concerns the history, typology, and description of the Niger-Congo
languages of Africa, especially Bantu. He has published several books (e.g. Phonology Theory and
Analysis, A Theory of Phonological Weight) and numerous theoretical articles in such journals as
Language, Linguistic Inquiry, Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, Phonology, Studies in African
Linguistics and Journal of African Languages and Linguistics.

His current interests center around
phonological theory, tone systems, and the comparative and historical study of the Bantu language
family (of about 500 languages) for which he founded the Comparative Bantu On-Line Dictionary
(CBOLD), originally funded by the National Science Foundation and in collaboration
with the Laboratoire Dynamique du Langage (CNRS / Université Lyon 2).
He is also currently Executive Director of the France-Berkeley Fund and has held several visiting
positions in Lyon, Paris and Toulouse.

Bamileke tonologist, Bafang, 1971

Tone

For the last several decades I have been concerned with the phonology
of tone: What can tone do? What can't tone do? How is it the same vs.
different from other kinds of phonology? How does it interact with
morphology and syntax? How does it fit into an adequate word-prosodic
typology? How should it be formalized? In a number of papers I have
shown that while tone can be studied in much the same way as other
phonological phenomena, there are some things that only tone can do.
See especially my Handbook chapter "Is tone different?" (2011).

Niger-Congo linguistics

From the very beginning of my student days in linguistics, I have been concerned
with descriptive, historical, typological and theoretical issues arising from the
study of African languages, particularly within the Benue-Congo subbranch of
Niger-Congo, and within it, especially Bantu and Bantoid. This has led me to look
at issues at all levels of grammar (phonology, morphology, syntax) as well as their
interfaces. Much of my current work is concerned with determining the distribution of
linguistic properties within the different areal zones and how we can exploit both the
specific details and the recurrent patterns of languages from across the zone to arrive
at an understanding of Proto-Niger-Congo and its subsequent history.

"Focus marking in Aghem: Syntax or semantics?" In Ines Fiedler and Anne Schwartz, The expression of information structure: A documentation of its diversity across Africa, 95-116. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.